The present invention relates to a player for table football machine, that is to say a figurine which has to be fixed to a horizontal rod mounted transversely, free in rotation and axially sliding, over the rectangular base of a box structure representing a football pitch. The rods, each of which carries one or more players of a single team and which are generally eight in number, are distributed in two equal series of four, all the rods of a single series carrying the players of a single team. Moreover, these bars are equipped, at one of their ends, with a maneuvering handle enabling them to be pivoted freely and to be slid axially to the end of their maximum axial travel.
In current table football machines, the players are usually fixed in a nonremovable manner onto the rods and their distribution cannot be altered: a single player representing the goalkeeper is fixed to the rear rod, two players representing the left and right backs are fixed to the rod located immediately in front of the above-mentioned rod, five players representing the "mid-field" players are fixed to the central rod and, finally, three players representing the "forwards" are fixed to the front rod.
A table football game consists in maneuvering these rods so as to strike a ball which serves as a football with a view to propelling it into the opposing goal mouth while preventing it penetrating into one's own goal mouth.
It is readily appreciated that the players must be fixed to the rods supporting them very rigidly since the torques to which they are subjected can reach very high values, particularly when their feet strike radially against the ball and jamming then occurs. Moreover, the players at the side suffer, at the end of axial travel of the rod, in their direction, and above all if this travel is effected rapidly and suddenly, very violent lateral shocks, despite the presence of dampers supported by the longitudinal walls of the box structure and coaxial with the bearings of the rods.